A new episode most Sundays: real trips, the fish we missed, and how the river works in every season. Here is the latest, then the past year of shows by season and species.
Thirty-one degrees at the landing, steam coming off the water, and the walleye finally moved up onto the rocks. How I read a wing dam, and why I fish the upstream face first.
Fished at The Wing Dams, spot 1 on the chart.
Twelve episodes. Pick a season, a fish, or both.
Thirty-one degrees at the landing, steam coming off the water, and the walleye finally moved up onto the rocks. How I read a wing dam, and why I fish the upstream face first.
Fished at The Wing Dams (spot 1).
When the ospreys start diving off the end of the sandbar, the shad are up and the white bass are under them. Fast fishing, then a shore lunch.
Fished at Lunch Bar (spot 6).
The short list that lives in my boat from late September until ice: what each bait is for, and where on Pool 8 I throw it.
Fished at The Wing Dams (spot 1), Heron Slough (spot 2), Stump Flats (spot 3).
A half-day trip with two anglers who had never fished current. Fallen trees, a squarebill and a lot of snags before it clicked.
Fished at Heron Slough (spot 2).
The hour after sunrise in the rice beds: frogs, blowups, and the one rule for setting the hook on a frog. Wait.
Fished at Rice Bed Bay (spot 4).
Northern pike patrol the outside edge of the weeds. A white spinnerbait, a steel leader, and how to unhook a pike without bleeding.
Fished at Rice Bed Bay (spot 4).
A day off the big river: a drift down the Root River in Minnesota, wading riffles and throwing tubes for smallmouth.
Filmed off Pool 8, so it is not on the chart.
Lake Pepin is the Mississippi gone wide. Trolling crankbaits for walleye on open water, and why I still prefer the backwaters.
Filmed off Pool 8, so it is not on the chart.
Bluegill on their beds at the shallow end of Stump Flats, a 4-weight fly rod and a foam spider. The most fun you can have for a dollar a fly.
Fished at Stump Flats (spot 3).
Off the river and up a coulee. Wading a spring creek near Coon Valley for brown trout, and what trout anglers and walleye anglers can teach each other.
Filmed off Pool 8, so it is not on the chart.
The first open-water trip of the year. Cold hands, high water and pre-spawn walleye stacked below the wing dams.
Fished at The Wing Dams (spot 1).
Seven inches of clear ice, a heated shanty over the deep basin, and crappie suspended halfway down. How I check the ice before anyone steps on it.
Fished at Winter Lake (spot 7).
No episodes for that season and fish yet. Ice fishing is panfish only, and the trout detour was in the spring.
One email a week with the new episode and a line on what is biting. Nothing else, and one click to stop.
Book a trip and tick "OK to film". Or don't: most trips are never filmed, and the fishing is the same either way.
